Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is a relatively liberal political party and one of the two major ones in the United States. Position In the USA it's hard to win an election without wealthy sponsors so true liberals can't easily win elections. What can we do? Perhaps American voters need to learn:- #A slick, expensive political campaign doesn't mean anything good. #A slick, expensive political campaign means the party or candidate running the campaign has sold out to rich sponsors. Pessimistic view Even if the Democratic Party is somewhat more liberal than the Republican Party, both parties pander to the wealthy elite. In some ways, elections between Republicans and Democrats are a contest between the Authoritarian Right and the slightly less Authoritarian Right. The United States is, in a way, a one-party state masquerading as being a democracy. The Democratic Party needs more liberals and with people who aren't of any establishment. In America, they are considered to be a liberal party, but when compared to other major left-wing parties of the western countries they could be considered a centre-right party. However, they are the only liberal alternative to the Republican Party since third parties, such as the Green Party and other Social Democratic parties are doomed to failure under the current system. Optimistic view "I'm not a member of any organized political Party. I'm a Democrat". Will Rogers The Democratic Party differs from the Republican Party, in that they are much more liberal and inclusive, making them more fundamentally correct, while the Republicans are far on the right and therefore are wrong and lacking common sense. Thus, they can be identified as the good guys. They are well-informed, idealistic, moral, patriotic, and relatively liberal. History The Democratic Party was not always the more liberal party, being that they once supported slavery and racism. After Woodrow Wilson (a women's rights supporter) came to power in the progressive period of the early 20th Century, Democrats became slightly less racist and after the 60's most of their racist members started joining the Republican Party. It is now the better of the 2 major parties for America when it comes to healthcare and equality. The early Democratic Party was also liberal, populist, and progressive. The nature of a liberal party, just like liberal thought, is that it is always trying to improve itself and is constantly evolving. The Jacksonian Democrats, for example, were very concerned with what they saw as the growth of crony capitalism, growing Corporate wealth, power and influence, and government-granted monopolies into markets. The name of the Party, was originally, and to some degree still is, a snarl word used by their opponents. The same is true of the Party's mascot, the Jack-ass. Recent Events In 2006, they won control both houses of Congress, which is good. On January 20th, 2009 Democrats took control of the White House as well. Barack Obama took office on that day. Sean Hannity is still crying under his desk. Sadly, Republicans hold enough seats to filibuster legislation introduced by Democrats and favored by a majority of Americans. The Republican obstructionists in Congress have blocked legislation to extend Free medical care to all children, set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and require cars to have better gas mileage. Neocons can cause problems in the Supreme Court as well. ]] In an unfortunate turn of events, Neocons and Tea Baggers bought won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 Midterm Elections. However, the Senate stayed in Democratic control. Liberals need to vote in every election cycle, primary and general. On July 30, 2012, the Democratic Party officially added marriage equality to their national platform which is great as more Democrats are supporting same-sex marriage, especially when Obama announced his support for it in an interview with Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America" on May 9, 2012. Party Infighting Since Occupy Wall Street, the party has begun to split, and this was exacerbated by Sanders', who's platform is more in the "New Deal" tradition of economic progressiveism, extremely good performance, actually being a threat to the Clintons, who's platform was more in the "third way" tradition of social progressivism and economic neoliberalism, in the 2016 primaries. Essentially, two factions are now fighting for control: the Occupy movement social democrats and the Clinton-era neoliberals. Both factions agree, more or less, on social policies, though they disagree on priorities, and have quite fiscal and regulatory differences. At this rate, it appears the neoliberals may fall in the coming years, as the Blue Dogs did back in 2010. Trump actually winning has disillusioned many, especially since polls showed that Sanders would've easily beaten most Republican candidates, showing more would vote for a social democrat than a neoliberal. Republicans also share infighting to a much greater degree. Notable Democrats *Bill Clinton *Hillary Clinton *Al Gore (he should have been President) *Dennis Kucinich (one of the most liberal Democrats ever) *Cecil Bothwell (another one of the most liberal Democrats as well) *Barack Obama *Bernie Sanders *John Edwards *Harry S. Truman *Franklin Delano Roosevelt *Pete Stark *John F. Kennedy *Joe Biden *Lyndon B. Johnson *Jimmy Carter *John Kerry *Richard Kimball (Ran for U.S. Senate against John McCain in 1986) See Also *Blue States *Blue Dog Democrats *DINO *Green Party (United States) *Labour Party *Bourbon Democrats *Dixiecrats Footnotes External Links *Website *2012 Platform Category:Political parties in the United States Category:Things Conservatives Hate Category:Things Pseudoliberals love Category:Things Sarah Palin Will Never Know Category:Things Liberals love Category:Not Conservative Category:Democratic Party